AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF UNIQUE BOOKS

Palindrome Hannah is back in print! If you are new to the fiction of Michael Bailey, this is where to start. The debut composite novel, first published April 1, 2005 by Unlimited Publishing, is now available through Written Backwards in a second trade paperback and eBook edition, featuring interior artwork by Michael Ian Bateson, and completely redesigned.

Available now in trade paperback for $12.95 (newer 8×5 format, matte finish, 334 pages) and in eBook for $6.95, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

And coming very soon, a re-release of the follow-up novel, Phoenix Rose, which will be made available in the same formats and for the same new prices.

Other Music, the debut solo novel by Marc Levinthal, is back in print! This edition, published by Written Backwards, features an introduction by John Skpp, and cover artwork by George C. Cotronis. The trade paperback is reasonably priced at $9.95 (US) / £9.95 (UK), the eBook only $3.95 (US) / £3.95 (UK), or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

With the discovery of the Thompson Corridors, the universe has been opened up, connecting humankind with a vast network of sentient species. Xenosociologist Jesse Suzuki, a nanotech-rejuvenated “oldster,” has joined the forced exodus of the newly young, mandated by law to ship out through the Corridors after his 80th birthday. Jesse finds his way to Eastlink, a sprawling human habitat orbiting Shjodathz, home to a race of regenerating beings who maintain direct memory of all their past incarnations. While studying the Shjodathí and their planetary biomachine guardian Kedel, he discovers a strange anomaly within the AI’s mind that leads him on a perilous, mind-blowing adventure …

The Written Backwards website (www.nettirw.com or www.writtenbackwards.com, whichever you prefer) is now updated with the most current book titles, information, cover designs, and purchase links for all past, present, and future releases. Check out the tabs on the top the page for NOVELS, COLLECTIONS, ANTHOLOGIES, and the ALLEVON series. More exiting projects coming soon!

ACCOLADES are also now listed for all Written Backwards titles, as well as CONTACT information and a few interviews, in case you’re interested in hiring Michael Bailey for freelance editing and/or book design in the near future. He’s currently available for all types of projects.

Year of the Dragon will not return until 2024, but next year, 2018, will hopefully be the year I unleash Drakein upon the world, a project I’ve been working on for over ten years. Drakein-5 is a hallucinatory street drug taken in the form of eye drops, and the fuel behind Psychotropic Dragon, the composite novel / meta-novel I’m co-writing with _________________ (name withheld).

Basically, it’s a novelette wrapped around a novella wrapped around a short novel, illustrated throughout by the likes of Daniele Serra, Glenn Chadbourne, L.A. Spooner, and Ty Schuerman. This book is going to be completely insane. One of the darkest projects I’ve ever attempted. Currently there are over 50 illustrations: some full-page, some half-page, some swimming on and off the page.

The novelette is 10,000 words, the novella will be 20,000, and the short novel portion is around 45,000. Here’s a snip-it from the novel:

She remembered holding the syringe that first time, hands trembling. Such a small thing—a third the size of your typical medicinal syringe, the needle a quarter-inch long. Smaller than a cigarette. “Looks like water,” she had said to Chase. The clear liquid inside appeared iridescent under direct sunlight, as if having an oily consistency. She heard it turned bluish-green under black lights. “What happens if I take more than two drops?” Chase had looked away, then, smiling out of the corner of his mouth. “It’s like any drug. Affects each differently. Two drops, no more. It’ll last a couple hours max, and then it’s back to earth. After you level, you can take more.

What’s a composite novel? “A composite novel is a literary work composed of shorter texts that—though individually complete and autonomous—are interrelated in a coherent whole according to one or more organizing principles.”

Who is my collaborator? Well, that has to be kept a secret for now, but know that it is someone well-loved in the writing community. Perhaps someone you might not expect.

Some of you have been waiting a long time for this book, so I’m going into overdrive to finally make it happen. Here’s a snip-it of the novelette, in case you can’t wait that long.

Somnambulism. That’s what my psychiatrist calls it. Differentiating between dream state and reality is often difficult, which is probably part of the reason for the sleep deprivation. A fear of falling asleep. What if I don’t wake up? What if I can’t wake up? What if the reality I think I know is the dream, or vice versa?

What can you expect out of this book? Expect the unexpected. Expect to be knocked completely out of your socks. Expect to become part of the book, hallucinating from your own dose of Drakein. This book is a trip.

Psychotropic Dragon is a unique collaboration. Along with the writing, this strange book has had many assists along the way. Jack Ketchum, John Skipp, Gary A Braunbeck, Douglas E. Winter, Thomas F. Monteleone, F. Paul Wilson … all have helped this book become something special.

That’s all I can reveal for now, along with Ketchum’s full blurb:

Psychotropic Dragon is addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing. But it’s the human element that keeps you turning the pages, the wounds to the psyche which we recognize immediately. The human element … and a fierce narrative style. – Jack Ketchum

The Cal Wild Chronicles is complete! This magnum opus by Gene O’Neill (illustrated throughout by Orion Zangara) concludes with The Far Future, the fourth and final book in the series. Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy … Gene blends them all.

Book #4 will make its official debut at StokerCon 2017 at the end of this month, and the entire series will be available so you can complete your set. And did I mention the entire set looks gorgeous on bookshelves with its 4-part spine image?

This four book series was a joint effort by Written Backwards and Dark Regions Press. Look below for the cover images for each book in the series. Clicking each will bring you directly to their Amazon.com pages for purchasing so you can collect the whole set in affordable trade paperback.

All four books Gene O’Neill’s The Cal Wild Chronicles will be available soon in trade paperback from Written Backwards! The series that started with The Confessions of St. Zach(March 2016), and The Burden of Indigo(June 2016), continues with The Near Future (available January 2017), and lastly The Far Future (available March 2017). Need to catch up before the next two books are released? Simply click the links above, the book covers below, or search for their titles at either amazon.com or darkregions.com.

The series is illustrated throughout by Orion Zangara, with introductions by John R. Little (book #1), Lisa Morton (book #2), Meghan Arcuri (book #3), and Scott Edelman (book #4), collecting over thirty years of genre-bending fiction.

The four-book series cohesively connects past and present literary works by Mr. O’Neill in a fluid blend of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. With The Cal Wild Chronicles, Gene has created a world in which DP’s (or Dyed People), permanently dyed for their crimes (reds for violent crimes, blues for sex crime, greens for money crimes, and many more), do what they must in order to survive a post-apocalyptic vision of California, or “Cal Wild.”

All four front covers of this special collection symbolically fit together to represent California tilted on its side and void of color; the back covers combine to reveal a more colorful but upturned version of California with blending/smoking swirls of color, like the characters found within the series; and the spine creates a Rainbow Man, or sorts, one who holds a special place in Cal Wild.

“Gene transports his readers, taking them inside his imagination and not letting them escape until he is ready to let them go. Anyone who likes Bradbury (and really, is there anybody who doesn’t) will feel right at home in Gene’s world.” – John R. Little

“Even in a place reduced to little more than ash and dust, even when we are always pursued and nearly consumed by our own tension, we will still find moments of pleasure, of amusement, of wonder.” – Lisa Morton

“Gene paints a picture of a post-apocalyptic world so complete, so compelling, it nestles into your subconscious and lives there for a while. He creates a world at once frightening and fascinating, desolate and colorful, but, above all, utterly believable.” – Meghan Arcuri

“Gene has always tried to speak truth for those who have no voice, and nowhere is that more present than in the stories contained in The Cal Wild Chronicles” – Scott Edelman

Look for both The Near Future and The Far Future in trade paperback very soon, and collect the whole set so your bookshelves can adorn some awesome spine artwork!

Bones Are Made To Be Broken by Paul Michael Anderson is now available in trade paperback and eBook from Written Backwards, an imprint of Dark Regions Press. This is the first fiction collection by Paul Michael Anderson, and the first fiction collection published by Written Backwards. The book is also available at Amazon.com. Jack Ketchum calls the collection “a dark carnival of rigorous intelligence and compassion.” Jonathan Maberry says it’s “a truly superb collection of deeply unnerving short stories.” And Craig DiLouie says “Bones Are Made To Be Broken challenges the mind and punches the gut.” Is that not enough to convince you?

Written Backwards, the multi-award-winning imprint of Dark Regions Press, continues its saga of producing some of the most beautiful books published today with Bones Are Made To Be Broken, a speculative blend of horror, science fiction, and raw unfiltered emotion by Paul Michael Anderson. 14 works of fiction are collected in this tome, including “All That You Leave Behind,” “To Touch the Dead,” “Love Song for the Rejected,” and a title novella written specifically for this collection. Every story is illustrated by Pat R. Steiner, an award-winning illustrator in the long-running Illustrators of the Future contest, and author of Enlarge Your Tentacles Overnight and Wyrd.

Yeah, it’s that good. Click the links, or the image of the book, and purchase a copy already!

Also available, Other Music, the debut solo novel by Marc Levinthal. This is the first novel in the new Dark Regions Sci-Fi imprint from Dark Regions Press. Other Musicfeatures an introduction by John Skipp, who says the novel is “entirely the kind of forward-thinking, playfully-subversive, nobody-else-could-have-written-this-tickling-at-the-normosphere book I’ve always loved.”

What’s it about?

With the discovery of the Thompson Corridors, the universe has been opened up, connecting humankind with a vast network of sentient species. Xenosociologist Jesse Suzuki, a nanotech-rejuvenated “oldster,” has joined the forced exodus of the newly young, mandated by law to ship out through the Corridors after his 80th birthday. Jesse finds his way to Eastlink, a sprawling human habitat orbiting Shjodathz, home to a race of regenerating beings who maintain direct memory of all their past incarnations. While studying the Shjodathi and their planetary biomachine guardian Kedel, he discovers a strange anomaly within the AI’s mind that leads him on a perilous, mind-blowing adventure… Fans of David Marusek, William Gibson, R.A. Wilson and Philip K. Dick will find common ground here – it’s hard science fiction adventure with an eye toward metaphysics.

And last but not least, The Eighth, the debut novel by Stephanie M. Wytovich.

After Paimon, Lucifer’s top soul collector, falls in love with a mortal girl whose soul he is supposed to claim, he desperately tries everything in his power to save her from the Devil’s grasp. But what happens when a demon has to confront his demons, when he has to turn to something darker, something more sinister for help? Can Paimon survive the consequences of working with the Seven Deadly Sins-sins who have their own agenda with the Devil—or will he fall into a deeper, darker kind of hell?

“The Eighth is a stellar horror debut from Stephanie Wytovich. An intimate, painful map of personal and literal hells that would make Clive Barker proud.” – Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author.

Buy all three in either trade paperback or eBook, and / or pre-order the deluxe hardback edition of each now at www.darkregions.com.